Article from Newsletter No.17 July 2004

MICROSOFT EPDC/5

In 2000, Microsoft celebrated fifteen years of business in Ireland.   In the same year, Microsoft sited a three-acre greenfield site at the IDA South County Business Park, Leopardstown, Co Dublin for its new European Product Development Centre, EPDC5.  This site is adjacent to the existing EPDC/2 product development facility, which opened December 1995.

The new €42m EPDC/5 facility consists of 11,488 square meters of floor area together with 322 car-parking spaces.

The building, designed by Gilligan Architects, comprises a three-storey facility over basement car parking.  Car parking is also provided at ground level on a podium structure. The floor plates are generally 50m x 50m with a 22.5m x 22.5m central atrium area.  Four no. stair/lift cores provide circulation. The basement car parking is generally class 1 category with class 4 category local to 3 number stair/lift core areas serving the basement. This basement area extends beyond the building footprint under the podium level service road and car parking areas and required a total excavation volume of 40,000 cubic meters of which 22,000 cubic meters was Granite rock.

A curved and inclined three-storey glazed wall provides the external focal point at the main entrance that leads into a 510 square meter atrium space covered entirely with roof glazing.  Aluminium framed glazing/cladding covers the major area of external elevations and the remaining core elevations are finished in limestone cladding.

The building was initially planned as a development/investment opportunity with fixed lease agreements to Microsoft.  However due to marketplace conditions, Microsoft negotiated a contract with building contractors, G & T Crampton Ltd.

Various structural schemes were proposed including a concrete flat slab structure.  However, based on programming requirements, the chosen scheme was a steel framed three-storey building set out on a 7.5m x 7.5m grid layout.  UC sections were used for column and the floor structures comprised a 335mm deep composite concrete slab on SD 225 decking which in turn is supported on ASB beam sections. To accommodate the higher loading of the ground floor to the atrium a 300mm deep flat slab structure was provided.  A flat slab structure on concrete columns provides for the podium areas and all core walls are formed with insitu concrete.

Initially it was intended to provide expansion joints through the building but on review of core locations, it was decided to engineer out building movements utilising the 4 no. perimeter cores and by providing UC steel tie beam sections between columns at floor plate levels. A total of 700 tonnes of hot rolled steel sections together with 40,000 cubic meters of concrete make up the structural frame. 

Lateral stability is achieved via floor plate action through to the 4 no. concrete core structures.  Steel members supporting the glass atrium roof and inclined/covered glazed entrance facade comprises CHS sections of various dimensions connected by steel side plates to form unique tapered elliptical profiles.

Substantial geotechnical investigations were initiated at early stages to establish rock contour levels.  In general, granite rock was found to underlie approximately 600mm of topsoil/gravely clay.  As a result, conventional pad/strip footings were used as foundations.  These were designed to be integral with the basement concrete slab.

In September 2001 G & T Crampton Ltd commenced on a 19-month construction programme broken into two stages i.e. (1) Shell & Core   (2) Fitout.   In July 2003, Microsoft Ireland gained possession of its new EPDC/5 facility on time and on budget.